Hot Topics:

Marathon victim tells first-responders: 'Tourniquets saved my life'

The Lowell Sun

Posted:
03/04/2014 01:13:48 PM EST

BEDFORD -- His story has been read and watched all around the world. If Chelmsford's Jeff Bauman did not receive tourniquets to stop the bleeding shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings in April, he most likely would have died.

Speaking at Middlesex Community College (MCC) on Tuesday moments before a "first-of-its-kind" tourniquet training, Bauman, who lost both of his legs in the explosion, told first responders from 23 agencies that the tourniquets kept him alive.

"Carlos (Arredondo, guy in the cowboy hat) put the tourniquet around my right leg, and someone tied a shoelace around my left really, really tight.

Jeff Bauman (SUN/RICK SOBEY)

And doing that right there bought me 10 minutes of my life," Bauman told the first responders from Billerica, Tewksbury, UMass Lowell and other agencies across the state.

"Tourniquets saved my life," he added.

The MCC Program on Homeland Security, the Billerica Police Department and the Municipal Police Training Committee organized Tuesday's special training, "Controlling Catastrophic Bleeding: Tourniquets, Pressure Bandages and Hemostatic Agents," in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.

For more on this story, read Wednesday's edition of The Sun and visit www.lowellsun.com.